‘We’ve become an exam centre’: Teachers struggle as new grading system and Covid catch-up sees workload spiral

‘Teachers are being forced to devote all their time and attention to being unpaid examiners,’ one school leader tells Zoe Tidman

Teachers will be setting GCSE and A-level grades this year (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Teachers are being forced to work extra hours as they juggle a new system for determining GCSE and A-level grades with helping pupils catch up on learning after months away from the classroom, unions and school staff have warned.

While ministers have insisted this year’s system is putting “trust” in teachers, school staff and education unions said it left them facing a mountain of extra work, with one deputy headteacher telling The Independent they were having to devote all their time to being “unpaid examiners” instead of focusing on helping other year groups catch up on learning.

“We have become an exam centre,” Pete Bowdery, a teacher from Surrey, told The Independent.